Vedic religion, also known as Vedism, was the ancient religion of the Indo-European-speaking peoples who entered India around 1500 BCE from the region of present-day Iran. It was a polytheistic religion that centered around the worship of a pantheon of gods and goddesses known as the Vedic gods. The Vedic religion, and subsequent Brahmanism, focused on the myths and ritual ideologies of the Vedas, as distinguished from Agamic, Tantric, and sectarian forms of Indian religion, which take recourse to the authority of non-Vedic textual sources. The Vedic religion was the product of "a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations".
The earliest Vedic religious beliefs included some held in common with other Indo-European-speaking peoples, particularly with the early Iranians. Vedism was a polytheistic sacrificial religion involving the worship of numerous male divinities (and a few goddesses), most of whom were connected with the sky and natural phenomena. The complex Vedic ceremonies, for which the hymns of the Rigveda were composed, centered on the ritual sacrifice of animals and the drinking of a sacred, mind-altering liquor pressed from a plant called soma.
Vedic religion emphasizes the purity of mind and contains a treasury of spiritual laws that were discovered and realized by sages who were capable of entering that spiritual dimension. Vedic Religion includes ritualistic, philosophical, and cultural views of Vedic seers. The legacy of Vedic worship is apparent in several aspects of modern Hinduism, such as the basic stratification of Vedic society into four varnas, the offering of oblations to a sacred fire (homa), and the Hindu initiation ceremony, upanayana, which is a direct survivor of Vedic tradition.
